The Memory of Murder

By E.M. Megs

Chapter 9 - Circle

She stared at the autopsy report in front of her. Then at the photos of evidence from the apartment. Her eyes scanned through everything, memorizing details, looking for connections. The four imprints in the carpet of the bedroom where she supposed that Ray Takahashi was forced to sit and watched his wife be tortured. The red marks on his wrists suggested that he'd been tied up. A chair showed definite signs of the finish being rubbed off by rope.

What she didn't understand was why? Why would someone do this? What motive was there to barging into someone's home, torturing the woman and killing her then killing the husband?

She scowled and looked through Ray Takahashi's record again. He'd been charged with different crimes at different points in his life. One murder that went to trial and he was found not guilty, a couple petty thefts, nothing too glaring. Certainly nothing that suggested the man had enemies. He had no siblings, his parents were dead. He wasn't associated to any gangs to her knowledge - it was unlikely anyway considering that his wife was a lawyer.

What was she missing?

She scanned through the photos again. This time her eyes caught on one of a shoe print on the floor. It didn't belong to a single shoe that the couple owned, which meant it belonged to either the killer or a recent visitor. She zoomed in and cleared up the image the best that she could on the computer screen. They'd taken a print of it too of course, but she didn't need the print to recognize it.

She felt a feeling of dread begin to overwhelm her. Not again. She was not doing this again. She braced her hands against the desk for a moment. Slowly, she forced herself to look up the type of gun that had killed the Takahashis.

9 mil Glock.

The very same. Her heart rate increased slightly. No. It couldn't be him. He had no reason. There had to have been more 9 mil Glocks in the country than just his.

Even so, it was just two pieces of evidence. It was merely a suggestion, not a conviction…

Right?

"What have you got, Haruhi?"

She jumped and forced herself not to turn around whirling. She shut the current window on the computer screen, shut the file folder in front of her and closed her eyes for a brief moment.

"Haruhi?"

She turned and faced him slowly, willing herself to look normal.

"Are you okay? You look like you've seen a ghost."

"I'm fine," she said, forcing her voice to remain stable. Her fiancé raised an eyebrow and strode forward to take the file from her. She pushed it out of his grasp. Now he was looking at her with a strange, confused look that seemed to be a bit calculating. She looked back him, gaze guarded. "Haruhi?" he asked cautiously.

"I want you to tell me the truth," she stated slowly, clearly. "Do you know the Takahashis?"

"I told you. I knew them once a long time ago. Not anymore."

"Kyoya," she growled, "How did you know them?"

"Through my parents," he answered softly. "They… used to be associated with them."

She stared at him as though staring long enough would show her the truth of his words. "Okay… Were you there recently?"

"Where?"

"Their apartment. Did you visit them recently before they were murdered?"

A small frown came to his face. "Haruhi, what's this about?"

"Answer the question, Kyoya." She set her jaw. She wasn't going to let him get away with avoiding her questions any longer.

"No," he said softly, narrowing his eyes slightly at her. "No. I wasn't there. I haven't seen or heard from the Takahashis since my mother's death."

"Are you lying to me?"

"Why would I lie?" She sighed and let her shoulders relax. "What did you find that set off this interrogation of me?"

Another horrifying thought entered her mind, tensing her again. He hadn't been home that night. The night the Takahashis were killed, he hadn't been home. She couldn't remember what he'd told her, but he wasn't with her. "Wait… Where were you the night they were killed?"

"Why are you asking me this?"

"Please just answer me."

"I was visiting Mother."

"No one else was with you?"

"No."

She swore, her mind racing. He had no alibi, his shoe print was in the house, and his service weapon was the same kind of gun as the murder weapon. She felt her heart begin to drop as she caught sight of the ring on her finger.

Had she agreed to marry a murderer?

She shook the thought from her head immediately. No. Kyoya was not capable of murder. Not of that kind.

She forced herself to calm down so she could think about this a little more.

"I think you need to be taken off this case," she said, almost swearing when she realized how shaky her voice and knees were.

"Why?"

"Because I think you just became a suspect."

~o~

He chased her down the hall as she took her bag and hurried out of the building. "What the hell does that mean?" he demanded, taking hold of her elbow and yanking her to a stop. "What did you find?"

"I'm not at liberty to say," she replied briskly, though it killed her to not be able to share with him.

"Haruhi, what did you find?" She just shook her head and pulled her arm from his grasp. "I might be able to defend my own innocence if I know what the hell it is that you think means I'm the killer!"

She turned around and caught herself with tears building in her eyes. She forced them back and looked him straight in the face. "The tread of your shoe is on their kitchen floor. Your service weapon is the same as the murder weapon. You claim that you haven't seen them in 24 years but you have no reliable alibi because no one was with you. Kyoya, I know for a fact that you own the same kind of pocket knife that tortured Chiyoko Takahashi."

He blinked a few times and let his hand drop from her arm. She could just see the gears in his brain working. Then his jaw set. "I didn't kill them. I wasn't even there. I don't know how my shoe tread ended up in that apart- How do you even know it's my shoe?"

"Kyoya, I'd recognize the Hitachiin designer symbol anywhere."

"Other people own Hitachiin shoes!"

"No. Not your designer shoes."

"You can't actually believe this."

"I don't want to," she admitted, "But…"

"Why would I kill the Takahashis? WHY?"

"I don't know." He stared at her for a moment. She let out a slow breath and whispered, "I'm sorry. I really am. I just… I'm following evidence, Kyoya."

He got that look on his face. The one where she knew he was so angry that he just shut out every other expression with a blank slate. "I've got to go," he growled, "Dunno if I'll be home for dinner or not."

"Kyoya, I have to go to the DA."

He waved her off as he strode away determinedly.

She hoped that he wouldn't dig himself into a deeper hole.

~o~

A/N: DUN DUN DUUUUUUUN. Bet none of you ever got in a fight with your significant other over whether or not they were a murderer.

Clarifying point: Just because the twins are not in the designer business in this does not mean that their mother isn't. Aha.

Sorry this took so long, I got a wee bit stuck. And then I went through and wrote this entire thing in like… an hour and a half. You're welcome.

Kudos to: MarinaStryke. Thank you, very much. Without you, this chapter probably wouldn't have been written for a least another week.

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